Operation VDay: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
by Lady Tyria
Summary: Fuji hates Valentine's, Eiji's gone missing, and it's no fun for anybody when Fuji's in a bad mood. Dream Pair Fuji/Eiji .


Operation V-Day: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Chocolate

Pairing: Dream Pair (Fuji Eiji)

Rating: PG

Synopsis: Fuji hates Valentine's normally, and now Eiji seems to be avoiding him.

Warning: Very 'loud' author, it was an experiment.

Notes: Wrote this quite some time ago. I mostly post stories on LJ, and I just realized that I never posted it here. Yes, it was almost this late for actual Valentine's when I originally wrote it

Although you'd never be able to guess it by looking at him, Fuji Syuusuke, the genius of Seishun Gakuen middle school, loathed Valentine's day. People who were exceptionally close to him could manage to occasionally catch a glimpse of the strain that only became a part of his smile on that particular day, if they tried hard enough.

What bothered him was not the cliched hatred of the holiday due to a lack of "someone special" to share the event with. That did not particularly bother him, since the brunette genius could choose to have a "special someone" to share it with easily enough if the whim struck him. In fact, it may seem strange for Fuji to hate the day so greatly, since his (rather large) sadistic side should take pleasure in the large number of people who do lack that ever important "special someone" to love, and thus are greatly pained by this holiday. Additionally, even those with someone they like could have a great amount of anxiety on this day, being nervous about telling their crush their feelings, or getting their significant other the perfect gift.

No, the cause of Fuji's annoyance is far more base; he had a distaste for chocolate. Quite in fact he despised it, as he did sweets of any kind. Perhaps if obtaining a "special someone" were a challenge for the brunette, he should likely find the day much more amusing... since then there would be the rush of the chase. However, since he happened to be a polite, smart, athletic, attractive and altogether perfect genius, he had quite the opposite dilemma. Scads of girls, and even some boys, vied, every single Saint Valentine's for Fuji's attention. Their rather unfortunate method of choice, which unbeknownst to them was inevitably doomed to fail, tended to involve finding the richest, most expensive, most disgustingly sweet chocolate they could afford.

Somewhere around turning down the twentieth would-be gift-giver, the sadist began to feel the urge to turn them down in a more cruel, enjoyable way. Unfortunately, as usual, he resisted this course of action since it would ruin his carefully constructed mask of eternal, perfect politeness. He had spent far too much time and effort cultivating this cover to toss it aside to make one day a year more tolerable. It always tempted him though. In fact, to keep up this persona, he couldn't even turn every admirer down, since that would be too overtly cold. Randomly, as the mood struck him, he accepted the occasional chocolate. When given the time to think about it, Fuji was cheered a little by this. This situation tended to cause anxiety in the admirers, as arguments based on who had been accepted and why fueled gossip, increased feelings of consternation on parts of those refused.

Had I mentioned that the first 20 gift-giving attempts had occurred even before he managed to reach the school grounds? It would be a terribly long day for the tennis genius. Not the least since on the particular Valentine's I'm relating to you, it was looking as though it would be even longer and more intolerable than usual. His good friend (mayhaps even best friend, if any person were close enough to the genius to have earned that distinction) Kikumaru Eiji was conspicuously absent from their usual meeting spot, just inside the building's gate. It wasn't essential that they meet there; they were in the same home room, but still the brunette waited until exactly the moment where if he stayed any longer, he would have had to rush to get to class on time (something evidently unacceptable for his cover). He was forced to store his chocolates in his locker, making it awfully difficult to remove the correct selection of books necessary for his next class.

Fuji's most reliable method for easing the annoyance of his particular brand of Valentine's day blues was to give the chocolate he received to the afore-mentioned red-head. Eiji had a particularly powerful and undiscerning sweet tooth. As sadistic as the brunette may be, he still enjoyed being kind to his friends... occasionally, and within reasonable bounds, of course. Furthermore, Fuji had found, from experience, that Eiji tended to be both particularly amusing and trouble-bound after consuming large quantities of sugar. This also tended to be a source of great consternation for Oishi Syuichirou, which led to the vice-captain being particularly flustered all day... which could also be a great source of amusement.

To the brunette's mild dismay, the redhead in question was late for first period, eliminating the chance for any pre-class chit-chat. When he was finally in attendance, Eiji seemed especially distractable for no discernable reason. And believe me, if it was possible for anyone to determine the problem by simple observation, Fuji would be that person. The genius had had to save his friend every time the teacher called on him (instead of most of the time, as was the norm).

As break began, Syuusuke turned gracefully to his comrade, remaining as poised as ever. He had a great many things to ask, but of course he couldn't act as though the strange events of the day had bothered him at all. He began his intended interrogation with an innocent enough, "By the by, Eiji--"

"Sorry, but I have to run nya," his subject of observation replied, packing his bag in such a rush that the usually quite dextrous boy lost hold of one of his books in quite a clumsy manner. Utilizing the agility Eiji had failed to demonstrate, the shorter boy caught the text before it could hit the ground. He held it out to his friend, and the redhead snatched it back quickly, abruptly shoving it back into his backpack. The taller lad hoisted the sack to his back without even bothering to zip it up. He hurriedly added the excuse, "Oishi asked me to help him with some things at break."

Fuji watched, eternally docile, as the red-head rushed out of the room (and not without at least two teachers calling out reminders that running in the hallways is forbidden). On the inside however, he was brimming with curiousity over his friend's strange actions and obviously nervous composure. If he didn't know better, he'd think Kikumaru Eiji was avoiding him. He did know better though, since he knew that Eiji was well enough acquainted with the genius to know better than to risk ignoring him. Ignoring Fuji Syuusuke generally results in him paying the perpetrator his undivided attention... and then they just had to hope they hadn't upset him in the process, since nobody ever wanted to anger Fuji. He dismissed the notion entirely, to make room for more realistic theories.

Eventually, Fuji accepted the curious but self-evident fact that Kikimaru Eiji was having an unusually rushed and busy day. It all worked out though, he supposed, since Eiji's reward later that day would be Fuji's chocolates, and the work will make them all the more enjoyable when he eventually received them. Also, Fuji had to admit that the idea that he would be the one to make Eiji's day had its own appeal for him.

By the next time he returned to his locker, he had to give in and remove all the books he'd require for the rest of the day, since there was now so much chocolate in his locker that it would prevent the efficient removal of any particular object from its grasp. He was beginning to find this situation quite bizarre. Even considering the fact that he usually would have already given a large percent of these heartfelt gifts to his friend, there still shouldn't be this many, should there? Perhaps he had been accepting a larger number than normal. He resolved to accept far fewer of the chocolates offered him, and continued on with his day.

His horribly, terribly dull day. He couldn't for the life of him find anything to amuse himself. This dullness had turned the day into pure monotony... and a bored, unhappy genius is generally a dangerous situation. He resisted the urge to do anything to the girls who were innocently trying to please him and thus wound up in a numb state, where he couldn't even recall who he had accepted or declined chocolate from anymore. Whatever matter of urgency Oishi had recruited Eiji for had kept the red head busy through lunch and at every break. Fuji was so greatly annoyed that at the end of the school day, he almost failed to smile at one of the few brave boys who tried to give him chocolate.

As he prepared to go to tennis practice, he was disgusted to discover that not only his locker but also his foot locker were now full to the brink of overflowing with little brightly wrapped chocolates. At least he should be able to unload some of this to Eiji at practice... and perhaps finally get a straight answer as to what exactly it was that was taking up all of Eiji's time that day.

In the locker room, he pulled out everything he required for practice from his locker, and then put two boxes of chocolate he had acquired on his way over inside. Despite his earlier resolution to deny more of the offers, it still seemed as though he'd been accepting too much. Fortunately, tennis practice is bound to be more peaceful, as only the bravest of female souls would dare the wrath incurred from Tezuka by interrupting the schedule of the Seishun Gakuen boys' tennis practice. For the few girls who did dare, it always would up being amusing, as it was a tension filled situation... which amused Fuji enough that he would allow it.

Despite lingering significantly longer than normal, (which Fuji couldn't help but notice that Inui quickly noted down in one of his many notebooks. Oh, what Fuji wouldn't do to get his hands on even just one of those notebooks!), Eiji never seemed to materialize. Fuji's smile became far less false when Oishi finally entered the club house. Although he'd hoped the redhead would follow quickly in the vice-captain's foot steps (which he didn't), the egg-headed boy would do well enough. He silently sidled up next to the bowling-ball-with-no-holes headed boy's locker, giving Oishi quite a start when he closed his locker door to see the genius's unnerving grin, "F-Fuji!"

"Good afternoon, Oishi. You've had a bit of a busy day today, or so I've heard..." Fuji comments, in an offhand kind of way. It would be unlike him to ask directly for the information he wished to know, and although he may be in an annoyed sort of mood, that was no reason to make his annoyance evident.

The reaction to his query, however, is far from what he'd anticipated. Of all the things that he could do, Oishi iblushed/i. This peaked the genius's curiousity, as well as his ire. He tried his best to suppress the latter reaction, at least until he had time to analyze the situation better... and himself, to figure out why he would feel so angered at this small thing. In case the blush wasn't suspicious enough, the vice-captain stammered, "H-how did you hear about that? Who t-told you?"

Curiouser and curiouser. Hadn't Oishi been with Eiji the entire day? Fuji's genius intellect gave him two options: Oishi had spent the day with Eiji, but they weren't exactly working... or Eiji had lied to Fuji about his whereabouts, and Oishi had had an extremely interesting and perhaps appropriately romantic day. He couldn't immediately determine a question that will allow him to distinguish between the two options without making it obvious that he know longer had any real clue what they were talking about.

Fortunately, Inui saved him the effort of developing one. He flipped a page or two in his notebook, and to Oishi's dismay (And to the even greater reddening of his cheeks), "Kitamura Sachiko, classroom 3b. Mocha brown hair, approximately 22 centimeters in length. Standard Japanese black eyes. Her strongest subject is Literature, her weakest is math, although her preferred subject is English, in which her marks are only average. Height: 162.5 centimeters, weight 46 kilograms. Favourite colour Lavender, a member of both the horticulture and the president of the girl's tennis club. Father, Kitamura Kenji, a banker..."

Oishi just gaped at the data player, resembling some form of brilliant red tropical fish, "H-how did you know all that?!" The vice-captain began to try to look at the notebook page on his girlfriend over Inui's shoulder. Fuji left the clubhouse as Inui continued to be annoying and rattle off every little fact about the girl named Sachiko.

Fuji's mood had plummeted significantly. What on Earth could have inspired the acrobatic player to risk the wrath of Fuji Syuusuke? Was he having a secret tryst of his own? How could his intelligence networks have failed him so utterly? Only one thing was certain: there would be Hell to pay.

* * *

Tezuka was at a loss that day. After only half of practice was over, he had already required the consumption of two aspirins. Ignoring the usual Valentine's day headache of keeping love-struck girls at bay and putting up with the increased noise levels their observation produced (is it just him, or had the entire girls' tennis team taken the day off to watch the boys practice?), it seemed as though everything that could possibly go wrong had decided to do so.

All three ball carts had broken, each in a different, fascinating and unusual manner. A record number of racket strings had broken (practically removing all freshmen and many second years from practice, since only the most serious players carried around more than one racket). Inui's newest poisonous juice (Platinum Glorious Inui Juice Turbo!) had gotten itself into the water supply, to everyone's dismay... even Inui's, since the juice was not at the testing stage yet, and he had only a small quantity of the juice made. Even this dilute amount of juice managed to knock out many of the few people who's rackets were not in need of repair... and as proof that this was not a plot by the manager to acquired new data was the fact that he was also a victim (as he had tested the water to ascertain if it truly contained his precious new concoction).

Since the Seigaku Boys' Tennis Team Captain did not believe in circumstance, jinxes, bad luck, curses, or the wrath of greater beings, he could only come to one conclusion... for which he had no particular proof, save that it was his default guess for inexplicable occurrences... Fuji Syuusuke, or more specifically, the wrath and incomprehensible plots of the genius in question. However, without any proof, Tezuka had no ability to respond, not justifiably.

The captain had given up on practice matches for the day, choosing more general training methods which everyone could participate in, even without a racket. While watching over his understandably demoralized troops, he pondered over the situation. The problems had started small and not overly destructive... almost like some form of twisted stress relief. All of a sudden, the pranks had escalated and turned cruel... and they seemed somewhat more conflicting, with the only common thread appearing to removing as many club members as possible from the practice.

He struggled to recall events that had occurred immediately before this turn for the worse. He narrowed it down to what appeared to be the most likely cause (although why this should incur such wrath was beyond Tezuka. His understanding of Fuji is above average, but far from perfect); Kikumaru Eiji had volunteered to be in charge of the freshmen for the duration. This was unusual in an of itself, since this was a duty which the redhead usually abhorred, considering it to be not adequately enjoyable or adequate training to be worth his time.

The most recent incident, the mass poisoning by Inui juice, had effectively removed the redhead from this duty. All players still capable of practice were now gathered within one fenced in double court area. Tezuka had a thought, and silently signalled for Inui to come over to him. It took a fair amount of time for the data player to follow this request, since despite his general immunity to most of his own toxins, this juice had still affected him quite negatively. Once the bespectacled boy arrived, Tezuka asked his question, hoping to confirm his hunch, "How much interaction have Kikumaru and Fuji had today, compared to the normal?"

"Approximately... zero." Inui replied, although not without a bit of strain, "Although I can't be exact since they have class together, but... Eiji left the clubroom 5.27 minutes before Fuji entered, which is 10 minutes and 43 seconds sooner than his average exit time..." Inui managed to pick up a bit of momentum and sound a little more lively, since he enjoyed his data, "Also, there has been an absolute minimum of 2 meters between them at all times, with the greatest distance being 20 meters, which is of course the distance separating court A from court B. Although the average distance has been closer to 10.37 meters. In fact, the last meeting between the two I can personally confirm was 12.45 hours ago, at--"

"That's enough, Inui," Tezuka brought his hand up to his forehead, attempting to will the aspirin to kick in quicker. Something was evidently bizarre... even beyond the whole havoc-on-the-courts aspect. Usually, Eiji and Fuji were quite close, and if they had had a quarrel of some sort, that may present a motive for the genius' lashing out... assuming Fuji Syuusuke is the problem in the first place.

Tezuka turned to Inui to clarify something else, about possible reasons for his Vice-Captain being so distracted that day (hoping for a... shorter answer this time), but the data collector appeared to have succumbed once more to his poisonous beverage, lying quietly passed out nearby. Strangely enough, on that day, a plot was born on the Seigaku courts that had nothing to do with either Inui or the resident sadistic genius. After all, if he couldn't find out the answers to his theories by asking others, then it was time for an experiment.

To test his working hypothesis, he decided to risk trying some practice matches (despite the fact that only 6 regulars other than himself were still functional, Kawamura having had a taste of Inui's juice). He cleared his throat, and despite the fact that he would not lower himself to yelling, everyone seemed able to hear his voice anyways, "Practice matches. Echizen versus Oishi, court 1. Kaidoh-Momoshiro pair versus Fuji-Eiji pair, court 2. One set matches."

Immediately, Tezuka realized the dire mistake he had just made. As soon as the announcement had been made, Eiji gave him a look which could only be described as that of a kitten who has just been kicked by the Master it trusted to protect it. Even worse, Fuji Syuusuke then graced him with a smile. A devilish grin which was altogether too happy, and which could have made a lesser man cower for his sanity. As it was, the captain could not prevent a shiver to creep up his spine. Somehow, he had been manipulated. Somehow, he had given the genius exactly what he had wished for.

...Tezuka Kunimitsu gave up altogether on accomplishing anything that day.

* * *

Fuji could not have asked for a better outcome from his efforts. He knew Tezuka would eventually pair him up with Eiji, the Captain would require proof that they had a conflict between them, and would not trust Inui's data alone for he was eternally wary of it. He could not so easily determine who they would be paired against, hence his effort to remove Inui from the picture. Ryoma would be too difficult to remove subtly, so he had to hope that Tezuka would not risk the headaches that usually arose from putting young Echizen into a doubles match.

Momo and Kaidoh as a pair were ideal for the genius's purposes. Not a particular challenge, to his skill and his usual combination with Eiji, and easy enough to predict, and manipulate. Also, they had the ability to let the match drag out, both having a large amount of stamina (especially Kaidoh). Of course, the third years would obviously lose that day. Eiji, Fuji assumed, would be simply unable to concentrate, especially with the genius behind him, and Fuji, well... his goal in this match was not victory according to the rules of tennis. Point in fact, his intentions would be best summed up by the word 'disaster'. Kikumaru needed to be made to know that Fuji was more than well aware of the red-head's deception, and to be taught that such tactics were simply unacceptable, regardless of the friendly relationship between the two.

Inui would never forgive himself for being unconscious for this train wreck of a tennis match. Eiji could barely return anything... in fact his attention was far more focused on the brunette behind him than the little yellow tennis ball in front of him (leading to no few interesting bruises). Fuji was making no great effort to even the score, in fact, he seemed to be spending more time making shots that came suspiciously close to hitting his partner without ever hitting him (in case the poor red-head wasn't stressed and paranoid before!). Since the doubles play of Momo and Kaidoh required a come-from behind challenge to prevent their conflicts, their play was exceptionally shoddy as well.

By the end of the match, the second year pair had prevailed, but wound up in a fist fight which earned them each seventy five laps. Tezuka had been tempted to send the other pair running as well, however the idea of a vindictive Fuji running laps with others seemed too cruel to the other players. Instead, he set them to clean-up duty, since the freshmen to whom the duty usually belonged were presently incapable. Also, the task was unavoidable, since after the misfunctions of the ball carts, every ball the club owned was loose.

Although Fuji had hoped Eiji would fess up, what with them being left alone, and after the revelations of the tennis match, however instead the acrobatic player avoided him even imore/i, trying to keep a few feet's distance at all times. He was also trying to keep all his attention on the tennis balls he was picking up, without even risking a glance at the spurned genius.

Finally, Fuji was utterly tired of this game. He tossed a ball such that it put into action a domino reaction which ended with the usually graceful redhead slipping on a ball (which he would forever be certain had inot/i been there when he'd looked the moment before!), launching him backwards almost perfectly into Fuji's arms. For future reference, part of Fuji's true genius could be summed up in that little word 'almost'. Humans are naturally suspicious of perfection, but that 'almost', that not uquite/u perfectness allowed for most people to relegate events to chance most of the time.

Kikumaru Eiji, however, was not falling for it this time. "F-fuji!" He stammered, removing himself from his friend's arms, his expression a barely withheld blush, compared to Fuji's feigned expression of innocent surprise. Eiji whirled to face the brunette, pointing an accusatory finger, "You're doing this all on purpose, aren't you?!"

Under Fuji's eternally closed eyelids, he rolled his eyes. Keeping up his guiltless front for the moment, he asks politely, "Whatever are you talking about, Eiji?"

"All the weird things that have been happening today nya!" Eiji always imitated a cat either the more excited, or more nervous he became. Theories abound on the subject of why, ranging from being a cat in a past life, with moments of great agitation being widely regarded as being closer to death, to it being a mere nervous tick, "Why are you doing all this?!"

The eery steely blue of Fuji's eyes became visible at this point, as he opened his eyes to freeze Eiji in place. He slowly stood, brushing himself off as he rose to his, no- so-impressive, full height. He then tilted his head in a way which would seem coquettish, or innocent, were his eyes still closed, "No. The real question is, why are you doing it?"

"What do you mean?" Eiji asked meekly. Such a loud gust of wind races past out of no where that he nearly considered repeating his query, louder, in case Fuji had not been able to heart it, but something in the other's gaze staying him. Still, he remained still, save for the goose bumps he could feel creeping up his arms. When had the day grown so chilly?

The genius considered replying a moment, but had to admit to himself that the alternative would be far more effective. Sensing a momentary lull in the wind, signalling an upcoming swell, he turned away, with perfect timing so as to make the wind blow his hair and clothes to the side, emphasizing the meaning behind his act. Without a further word nor glance to Eiji, he picked up his basket of balls, already full, and went to the clubhouse. Tezuka and Oishi were long gone (the vice captain likely with that Sachiko girl, the Captain to go lie down in the nurse's room until his headache recedes), apparently leaving the task of locking up to Fuji. He allowed himself a rare frown. They had never given him a key, so they must somehow be aware of the fact that he had acquired one for himself.

Actually, as with much of what the genius does, that one out-of-place facial expression served more than one purpose. As well as demonstrating his distaste for his spare key being discovered, he also knew the effect it would have on the feline boy following behind him. A chill raced down Eiji's spine, a chill of terror, since although it was never a good time to see Fuji frown, if there were such a thing as a bad time, this was it.

Eiji pressed his two index fingers together, nervously slinking along behind his friend. He should definitely leave plans and plots to Fuji from now on, as his attempt had gone horribly awry. Before he could think on the matter any further, the brunette is looking at him again. Despite his friendship with the other boy, he still felt frozen by those eyes, especially since he wasn't used to them being focused on him in such a glare.

"So..." Fuji began, his voice sounding innocent and conversational enough, detailing how terribly magnificent his acting skills were. That voice sounded as if it were coming from another being, not the angry one staring with narrow blue eyes, which seemed so especially unnatural to the red head. In a tone that, to Eiji, told him that Fuji obviously knew about the lie, he asked, "What were you and Oishi so busy with all day?"

The redhead decided, on the spot, that the only thing that won't serve to exacerbate this situation would be to come clean and explain everything. His attempt to cheer his friend up on the day he knew Fuji despised most could not possibly have gone more utterly wrong. He couldn't seem to speak though, and when he did manage to force his voice out, it kept trembling, "Fuji, I wasn't with Oishi today..."

"Oh really?" Fuji stated dryly. Now that the red head seemed to have gotten the point, the genius was content to lean back against his locker and wait for the (inevitably rambling) explanation... and it had better be a good one!

"Well, y'see... it uh..." He giggled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck in a way that Fuji would usually find quite adorable, "I know how much you hate Valentine's day, and all... and I wanted to try and make it a bit better, you know, easier to take..."

Fuji watched him cynically. The as yet unexplained absence of his best friend certainly hadn't improved his mood at all, nor did he see how it was supposed to accomplish such a task. he carefully observed and studied Eiji's every little movement. He spent so much time with the acrobatic player that he could usually understand him better from body language than from his words (part of why they made a better-than-average doubles team), but he couldn't seem to make a reading at that moment.

The redhead was giving off rather mixed signals: excited, nervous, scared, hopeful, embarrased... even giving off some signals which Fuji had never seen before, and thus could not decypher. Apparently, he was going to have to depend on vocal clues, and Eiji's ineloquence this time.

"...which isn't why I was gone all day, that was because I was too nervous... but I... hoi" Eiji gave up on trying to explain in words. He was too frightened to speak. Instead, he went to his locker and pulled out a small, red rectangular, poorly wrapped present, with a little blue bow, held together by glue taped to its top. He held it out to the brunette with both hands, face down in an incidental half-bow, eyes closed.

The genius blinked, looking down at the parcel, very nearly confused. Eiji had developed a habit of surprising him that day, which was truly fascinating. He noticed, at first alerted by the rustling of his red locks, that the anxious teen had shifted slightly to look up at Fuji in an attempt to discern the reason for the apparent lack of reaction. His eyes met with the genius's icy blue ones, which then slowly closed into their regular, gentle smile.

Fuji carefully removed the gift from his friend's hands, barely containing his rarely so ignited curiousity. What did Eiji think would cheer him up on this awful day? And how come giving such a small present to his friend could cause him such anxiety... even to the point of avoiding him all day. The red head looked up at him, cheeks discernably redder than normal, giving Fuji a nervous grin and quiet 'hoi'.

His best, albeit somewhat creepy, friend delicately removed the red plastic-coated paper, tossing it gracefully into the trash with no effort. He unveiled a small box. Upon opening the card board, it became necessary for the genius to use nearly all his skill to prevent himself from frowning.

Eiji detected the minute shift from true smile to cover, and quickly moved his hands in front of him defensively, "I know you don't usually like them, nya, but I made these myself, for you!"

Fuji watched on in amazement as the red head blushed and turned away. A bit of an explanation as to his angst became clear: giving Fuji chocolate, part of his problem with the holiday, to alleviate the annoyance of it, is obviously a bit of a questionable tactic. Still, the genius trusted the sincerity of his friend, and would never hurt the cat-like boy the same way he easily turned down anyone else. He must at least try this gift.

The brunette put the box down on the bench, picking up one of the rather unusually shaped chocolates delicately between two fingers. They were wide on the bottom, narrower near the top... not unlike an ice cube, he mused. Taking his empty hand, he placed it under Eiji's chin and lifted the face of his friend to force him to watch as Fuji took a delicate nibble out of the homemade chocolate.

Those strikingly blue eyes widen again, this time in pleasant surprise. Inside their chocolate covers, the treats Eiji had created consisted of a mix of wasabi and several other spicy ingredients. The sweetness of the chocolate added a certain unique texture and made the heat of the wasabi stronger, as if the chocolate lulled the tongue into a false sense of security. In other words... they were really quite good! Excellently adapted to the genius's unique tastes.

Eiji watched, and slowly his goofy grin grew larger as he realized that his experiment appeared to be a success. His eyes followed closely as Fuji finished off the block he'd bitten into, breaking the silence with a simple comment, "They were so spicy, I cried when I tried one, hoi."

Fuji smiled gently at the red head and patted his hair, "They're delicious. You said you made these?"

His friend nods, "I know about what kind of food you like, so I though if there was some kind of spicy chocolate, you might like it better than the sweet stuff." Had he the ability, he would have stopped there, but something about Fuji, be it his surprisingly soft and un-callused hand on his chin, or those hypnotizing blue eyes smiling at him, prevented him from stopping. Fuji had always had a way of getting more out of the acrobatic player than he'd ever intended to share, "I spent a week scouring the stores in the area, but I couldn't find any kind of spicy chocolate. So last night, I gave up on buying stuff, and made something myself. I stayed up most of the night working on it..."

"Which is why you were late for school this morning." Fuji concluded easily. Nearly everything was clear to the genius now, except... the large amount of trepidation the red-head was demonstrating didn't seem to be corroborated adequately by the explanation given. Why was Fuji enjoying his gift worth so much dread? Unless... well, there was only one good reason for the acceptance of one's chocolate to be so utterly essential, as far as the brunette could determine. One side of his mouth quirks up as he bites back a chuckle (since such an act would likely have unnerved the still quite twitchy boy more than intended), "You like me."

Watching Eiji's cheeks quickly change to mirror the colour of his hair only increased the size of Fuji's grin. Eiji backed a step away, stammering, "F-fuji, nya, w-what are you suggesting...?"

Deciding that he did not need to listen to his friend's denials, he acknowledged what the non-verbal signals are now telling him loud and clear... and in fact this key to the puzzle he had deciphered helped him to understand some of his own strange reactions that day, all to come to a neat, well-formed conclusion, which he felt it necessary to act upon immediately. Fuji leaned in instantly, taking Eiji's lips up with his own so that they could not form any more lies.

After a stunned moment of paralysis, the red head leaned up against the brunette, declicately because of the novelty of the sensation, nonetheless enjoying the moment. After the kiss ended, Fuji moved away wordlessly to his locker, and changed from his tennis uniform back to his school clothes, as Eiji watched him in stunned silence. The genius doesn't explain his action at all, although Eiji ought to know better than to try and comprehend all that Fuji does. Finally, the red head went and changed his clothes as well, and by the time he turned back to look at the brunette again, it was just in time to see Fuji recover the box of chocolates and put it into his bag.

Again being the one speak first, the mellow voice of Fuji added to silence the conversational comment, "I have a bit of a gift for you as well."

"Hoi?" Eiji asked. How could Fuji have something to give back to him, when he couldn't have known he'd be receiving a gift? And besides, shouldn't he perhaps wait til white day? The brunette simply opened his locker, allowing boxes of ordinary sweet chocolate to tumble out. The red head stared at the mound of sugar.

"There's more in my school locker as well," Fuji continued smoothly, the ordinary innocent smiles graced his visage not quite capable of masking up the implication his comment had, "So, I'm afraid I'll have to help you carry it all home..."

* * *

OMAKE

The next day was, fortunately, the weekend, so Inui could afford to give himself the time lying down which he needed to properly recover from his newly tested Platinum Glorious Inui Juice Turbo. Once back to 75 of normal functionability, he got up and headed over to his computer, feeling a pressure to record the unusual information he had been able to gather from the strange occurrences the day before. He dug through his bag a moment... and then longer and longer, acquiring what would be identified as franticness if it were associated with a more ordinary individual.

The notebook simply was not there.

He got dressed and out of the house, biking to school. Not unlike Fuji, he had obtained for himself a key to the clubroom through clandestine methods. He discovered the missing notebook readily in his locker. He went to note the intense effect of his newest lethal beverage had had, even on himself... after all, for him to simply forget one of his notebooks was unheard off...

However, when he looked in the recovered book, there was a page of writing that was far too round and, well, pretty to be his own... which contained some kind of recipe for chocolates which he 'simply must try for himself'. The data collector adjusted his spectacles, with a murmured statement of "interesting data...", then returned home.

In his kitchen, he whipped up the recipe, then as per the instructions puts the ice cube tray in the fridge. Returning to his room, again with the intention to add notes to his computer, he noticed something quite conspicuously missing... his notebook collection. Every last one save that in his hand.

His eyebrow twitched as he examined the writing of the recipe again. Only one person could have accomplished such a feat... In a hushed whisper, he exclaimed, "Fuji Syuusuke...!"


End file.
